Bringing light to origins of the menorah

Updated 6:35 pm, Thursday, December 15, 2011

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Congregation members arrive in cars with menorahs on top to Chabad of Uptown on the final night of Hanukkah on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008, in Houston. Rabbi Chaim Lazaroff lead the service which included the lighting of a menorah made from cans of food that the congregation will donate to the Houston Food Bank.
on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008, in Houston.
( Sharon Steinmann / Chronicle ) less

Congregation members arrive in cars with menorahs on top to Chabad of Uptown on the final night of Hanukkah on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008, in Houston. Rabbi Chaim Lazaroff lead the service which included the ... more

Photo: Sharon Steinmann

Bringing light to origins of the menorah

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On Tuesday a 12-foot-tall steel candelabrum will be lit in the Galleria in honor of the first night of Hanukkah. Two hours earlier and nearly 1,500 miles away, a large menorah will illuminate the Ellipse outside the White House in Washington, D.C.

The multi-branched candelabrum has become widely recognized as a symbol of modern Judaism, but most people don't actually count the branches of the candelabra. If they did, they'd realize that the Hanukkah lamp - often called a hanukkiah - has nine arms, while the traditional menorah has seven branches.

In some ways, the ubiquity of both the seven- and nine-branched lamps is surprising. Hanukkah, which commemorates the 2nd-century B.C. Maccabean revolt against the Syrian king Antiochus IV, is too late to be mentioned in the Old Testament alongside the High Holidays and the three annual pilgrimages of Passover, Tabernacles, and Weeks. But experts say that the role of the candelabra as a source of light and its relevance as a Jewish symbol in ancient times explains its modern proliferation.

The seven-armed menorah, which famously appears on the Arch of Titus, is affiliated with the Temple and Tabernacle candelabra mentioned in the bible. It was the Temple menorah which miraculously burned for eight days as part of the Hanukkah narrative, and the symbol of the menorah dates back to at least the beginning of the common era.

Menorahs appear on ancient small oil lamps and lintel decorations in synagogues, while the nine-branched hanukkiah first appears in a Golan Heights, Israel, synagogue that arguably dates to the first century, says Ori Soltes, a Georgetown University lecturer.

The hanukkiah's nine branches correspond to the eight days of the holiday, with an additional branch called a shamash, or attendant, which is used to light the other candles.

"Hanukkiah is a brand new word of modern Hebrew, when (Israelis) decided to call all electrical lamps and sockets as menorah," says Alan Brill, an Orthodox rabbi and chair of Jewish-Christian studies at Seton Hall University. "Before, they were both called menorah."

According to Brill, the menorah is one of the oldest Jewish symbols, which became an "emblem of enlightenment" starting in the 16th century. The menorah, which is the official emblem of the state of Israel, also symbolizes God's light in Kabbalistic tradition, adds Brill.

Lazaroff, who directs the Chabad of Uptown in Houston, adds that recent polls have shown that 93 percent of Israeli Jews light Hanukkah candles, compared to 85 percent who celebrate Passover. He notes that only 65 percent of Israeli Jews believe in God.

A central Hanukkah ritual is publicizing the miracle, which is why Orthodox Jews light their menorahs after dark and place them in their windows for maximum visibility, Lazaroff says.

Soltes, the Georgetown professor, isn't surprised that Hanukkah has become so public.

Not only is the Hanukkah miracle uplifting, Soltes says, but the holiday also reflects the "universal desire to fight back the darkness of winter with light" and serves as "a specific antidote, for Jewish children, to the excitement of their Christian classmates as Christmas arrives."